Why chess's popularity is in rapid decline?

Question

I am an avid chess player and i am worried about the rapid decline of chess these days. Why do you think the popularity is declining?

My answer:
I think chess was used as a political tool during the cold war era. It's popularity during the cold war era was unprecedented. Espicially after the 72 match with spassky and fischer, chess memberships everywhere doubled and chess in the mainsteam was at it's height. Because of this chess was never marketed commercially, it was only a political tool, which would decline as political strifes ended. And since it was never commerciliazed properly, it would remain a game that is virtually unknown to the newer generation. And because of this ignorence, the game has many tags which disassosiate it with mainsteam culture. Nerdiness, old people's game, too complex for the average mind etc...

Answer 1

The reasons for chess declining in popularity are many. As you suggested, political pride was a big factor in the game's popularity. Additionally, intelligence is looked down on and ridiculed in mainstream American culture today, with the ideal person being presented as just about anything but a chess player. I mean, chess players are portrayed as guys (cause we all know, "ladies don't play chess") who are in the a/v club, are physically weak, are soft or homosexual. Just pretty much whatever the stupid people want to say them has been ok. Maybe that's too hard of a view of it, but it seems to me to be true. I mean, it's just not "cool" to play chess. But I don't think that's the main reason why chess has declined in popularity.

Before I say this I want to qualify it. I love chess. I have played since I was 8.

That being said, chess kinda sucks compared to other games today. If you can beat someone at chess, you can do it like 5 in 6 or 9 in 10 times played. That sucks for the weaker player. To find a good match is hard. You might be the best player in your group of friends, but if you go to the local coffee house you might not be able to beat anyone there. Everybody that I know that I can have a face to face game with, I can beat consistently, so nobody will play me. When I moved to where I live now, the local guys who grew up around here played a little chess and there was one guy who was supposed to be the best. We played, I won 6 in a row. He was almost ready to fight over it. I get online and I'm a nobody. LOL It sucks. There is no luck. It is a game of pure skill. People will read this think "like baseball or basketball" but they would be wrong. There are no puddles of sweat on the floor, no wind, no chance of a sprained ankle. People want a game that's not going to involve losing the first 50 or 75 games they try and play. Besides that, chess is a real low-tech strategy war simulation. Today, if I want a strategy war simulation, I use my computer and replay historic or fantastic battles in a graphically created world. Chess sucks big time compared to command & conquer or civilization.
Bottom line, chess is way past it's prime and even without the dumb people ridiculing away anything resembling thought, it's on the way out. But, I'll still play it, even online where I'm target practice for far smarter men, or some dumber ones using a cheap program to let their computer think for them. If I keep practiced, then I can still rout the newcomers, maybe.

Answer 2

I'm surprised to hear that you think chess is declining. I was under the impression that due to technology it has greatly increased in popularity. With people now able to go onto forums such as Yahoo games and constantly find around 5 - 10 thousand people playing, all ranked so a fairly even game can be found. Also I understand that with chess software the age of grandmasters is getting younger and younger. With children and adults alike finding challengers.

But there are a few drawbacks to chess. As stated in an answer above face to face it is hard to meet people who are a good match making it difficult for many to enjoy. Also many games end in draws at the pro level so it lacks popular appeal.

I personnally have fallen in love with the game of GO. If you like chess I strongly suggest trying this game out. It takes a while to understand so if you do decide to play plan for a long journey before you are considered 'good'.

Answer 3

It's not true that chess popularity is in decline *now*. It was for several decades in the Western countries, mostly because of Fischer retirement and a lack of larger-than-life idols like and of course because, as you say, there was this political "spice" to it in the 60's and 70's. I think chess' popularity hit rock bottom in the early 90's, but there are several signs that its decline halted in very recent years (if it is not over optimistic to say it reverted a bit) and the reason for it is the internet. So if you measure chess popularity in terms of attendancy to *offline* chess clubs, yes, it's decreasing. But online it's a different story. ICC (just to name one chess server, and a paid one!) is attended by thousands. Playchess (another paid site) too. Many people play in the free servers, such as FICS, Yahoo, chess-net and a whole bunch of others. And chess news websites are proliferating. Chessbase.com, the best of them, receives serious traffic. I don't have actual data here but I remember reading some stories about chess news websites receiving up to a million visitors during broadcasting of the last world championship match.

So maybe it's only wishful thinking but I think there are signs of recovery of chess activity.

Also please consider that the decline we are refering happened in the western countries. East Europeans contry still have strong interest in chess.

And we can't forget that there is a serious boom of chess playing in China.

Answer 4

I like "Deango..'s" answer.

I think you have answered your own question well also.

But don't give up hope just yet. There recently was a TV movie called "Knights Of The South Bronx" which I enjoyed a lot. And if you go to Susan Polgar's chess site you might find some encouragement there. She is trying to revamp the chess federation and I think she'd make an awesome improvement. I think she recognizes, as you do, that chess was far too political and the world of chess became polluted with a bunch of pompous bastards like Bobby Fischer who really did more to damage the game than promote it.

I disagree, however, with "Deango..." that chess is outdated.

Chess is immortal, like the Bible. And nothing can take that from you. No matter what happens to chess socially, it will always be a game my wife and I love to play. Chess is like a buried treasure. Many will never find it. Many will never know the riches it has to offer. But for the few who do find it, it will become a lifetime of unparralelled rewarding entertainment. It offers nothing to the impatient. And isn't that how it should be? In this high tech age, people are looking for that perfect game. What they don't realize is that it's been sitting right under their nose for centuries...and it never needs batteries. Chess.

Just for the fun of it, here are just a few of the famous personalities who have found that buried treasure that is chess:

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, John Quincy Adams, Ben Affleck, Alan Alda, Lauren Bacall, Antonio Banderas, Ludwig Beethoven, Larry Bird, Sonny Bono, David Bowie, Marlon Brando, Mel Brooks, Jim Brown, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, Wilt Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Christopher Columbus, Bill Cosby, Aleister Crowley, Macaulay Culkin, Salvador Dali, Matt Damon, Ted Danson, Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bob Dylan, Roger Ebert, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth I & II, Peter Falk, Morgan Fairchild, Mike Farrell, Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Lawrence Fishburne, Michael J. Fox, Henry Fonda, Jamie Foxx, Sigmund Freud, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bill Gates, Al Gore, Billy Graham, Ulysses S. Grant, Lorne Greene, Woody Harrelson, Alfred Hitchcock, Adolf Hitler, Bob Hope, Anthony Hopkins, Harry Houdini, Ben Kingsley, John Lennon, David Letterman, Abe Lincoln, LL Cool J, Steve Martin, Harpo and Chico Marx, Walter Mathau, Joni Mitchell, Marilyn Monroe, Rick Moranis, Willie nelson, Paul Newman, Chuck Norris, Eward Norton, Yoko Ono, Bill O'Reilly, Edgar Allen Poe, Jason Priestly, Dennis Quaid, Anthony Quinn, Tony Randall, Helen Reddy, Keanu Reeves, Carl Reiner, Rembrandt, Christina Ricci, David Lee Roth, Maria Shriver, Brooke Shields, Frank Sinatra, Will Smith, Kevin Spacey, David Spade, George Steinbrenner, Sylvester Stallone, Ringo Starr, Sting, Shirley Temple, Leo Tolstoy, Liv Tyler, John Wayne, Orson Welles, James Whitmore, Oscar Wilde, and Robin Williams.

I hope I have given you some encouragement regarding this wonderful and majestic game.

Good luck and take care!

...oh and...castle early!

.

Answer 5

Assuming it is declining (an assumption I wouldn't accept at face value) the reason would be simple... there's a lot more games that we're aware of nowadays. I got into chess as a kid, but there's too many other great games out there that I'm not going to limit myself to just one. I'll still play the occasional friendly match but I'm not going to dedicate myself and play just chess competitively anymore.

Answer 6

Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) Marvin Gaye Material Girl - Madonna Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon Hell is For Children - Pat Benatar War- Edwin Starr Now, all of these songs are old, but the message is still applicable to today. I would not be able to answer using songs from today so I used songs from the past

Answer 7

People's attention spans are shrinking. There is no "instant gratification" in a chess game. It's not fast paced enough for the computer generation.

Answer 8

Fewer intelligent people and shorter attention spans

Answer 9

Because Mario is just too stimulating to many. Why in heavens should we be expected to think?

Answer 10

Can anyone tell what is the correct answer for this question?